Carroll Goes Under the Knife: Diamondbacks Star Has Elbow Surgery After Loose Bodies Flare Up

Corbin Carroll played through it for most of the season. A little discomfort in his right elbow, nothing he could not live with, nothing worth stopping for. Then last week, something changed, and the Arizona Diamondbacks' star outfielder knew it was time to get it looked at.

He went under the knife on Thursday. Surgeons removed loose bodies from the elbow in a minimally invasive NanoScope procedure, the same operation Detroit's Tarik Skubal had during the season that allowed him to return from the injured list in only six weeks. Carroll, speaking to The Arizona Republic on Friday, said he hopes the setback costs him less than a month of offseason work. He plans to start swinging the bat at the beginning of December, about two weeks later than he had originally intended.

"I'm guessing a couple broke off during the season and a couple broke off last week," Carroll said. "Last week was when I really had significant symptoms where it was like, 'Hey this is worth taking a look.'"

It is a small procedure with a small price, and the timing could hardly be better. The season is over, the elbow will have the whole winter to settle, and Carroll should be a full participant by the time spring training arrives. For a player who built his reputation on speed and violent, full-effort swings, an elbow full of loose fragments is the kind of thing you fix now rather than carry into another year.

The timing is also worth noting because of the week Carroll has just had. Earlier this week he won his first Gold Glove Award, after being named a finalist for the second year in a row, and he was one of three Diamondbacks to take home the honour this year. He was also named a Silver Slugger finalist, recognition of a season in which he hit .239 with a .328 on-base percentage and a .467 slugging percentage, with 22 home runs, 33 doubles and 17 triples. The batting average will not win him any awards, but the rest of the line — the power, the triples, the defence — tells the story of a player who impacts a game in every way it can be impacted.

That is what makes the surgery news easy to live with. Carroll is 26, coming off a season in which he played well enough to be recognised as the best defensive outfielder in his league, and the operation addresses a problem that had been quietly getting worse rather than one that suddenly appeared. Loose bodies in an elbow do not heal themselves. They catch, they grind, they make a joint feel older than it is. Taking them out now, with a minimally invasive procedure and a short recovery, is the sensible call.

Arizona will not miss him in November. What matters is December, when he picks up a bat again, and February, when he reports to camp. If the elbow feels the way he expects it to feel, this will be remembered as a footnote to a very good year — a week in which Corbin Carroll won a Gold Glove, made a Silver Slugger shortlist, and fixed the elbow that had been bothering him all along.